


winners or survivors

by Shabby Abby (KJPearl)



Series: Three Lives, Intertwined [2]
Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, Life-Affirming Sex, M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, Morning After, Multi, Polyamory, Relationship Discussions, due to being drunk, though they aren't doing anything they wouldn't do while sober
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2018-12-06 14:53:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11602938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KJPearl/pseuds/Shabby%20Abby
Summary: Two victories over Rigour. Two days of sadness, but also two nights of celebration.





	1. Night I

Rigour was gone, maybe not permanently. In fact, as far as Addax could tell, definitely not permanently, but it was slowed down trapped for several years. Maybe even decades or centuries if they were lucky. Addax doubted they would be. Still, Addax, Jace, and Jamil were celebrating the victory by getting drunk. Jace had pulled out some strong OriCon vodka, known for getting people shitfaced without resulting in hangovers, and the three sat on the couch of Jace and Addax’s shared apartment.

"Jamil, you're real pretty. Did you know that?" Jace slurred. Jace was wonderful, he sat on Addax’s lap and fit perfectly and Addax loved him. Jamil’s eyes darted from where they had been studying Jace to Addax, and he noticed worry in her gaze. He was sure he knew what that was about. He would remember if only he weren't so busy being happy about spending time with Jace and Jamil. Or maybe it was that he’d remember if only he hadn’t had so much alcohol. He tightened his grip around Jace’s waist and tried to send Jamil a reassuring smile. 

"He's right,” Addax said, “You're like the prettiest. Um. Also Jace is the prettiest. It's a tie. The two most beautiful people in the sector here with me." Addax was so lucky. He laughed from sheer joy. Jamil gave him another weird look. Addax didn't like that. He was happy and wanted her to be too. He whispered in Jace's ear, “You should give Jamil a kiss.”

Jace giggled and leaned forward in his lap until his face was inches from Jamil’s. Their lips met and Addax watched Jamil's eyes fall closed as her hands lifted to Jace's face, tilting his head to a better angle. When the two parted the room was silent except for their quiet breaths. Jamil's eyes met his, holding a confused question within. Addax simply smiled back. She nodded at him, then pulled Jace onto her own lap. Kissing him again, this time less chaste. Her hands tightened on the hair at the back of Jace's neck, where Addax knew he was especially sensitive. Jace let out a small whimper. When they split for the second time, Addax took the opportunity to lean forward and kiss Jamil himself. His lips resting where Jace’s been had been only a few seconds before, that was nice. Jamil kissed like she fought  — tricky . Her lips and hands were gentle, but firm. There was no doubt that she was in control. He could taste Jace on her. When they separated he found Jace staring at them, eyes wide and mouth smeared with Jamil's lipstick, now a dark plum. Addax gave him another kiss, just to keep everything equal. 

“Not that I don’t love this,” Jamil murmured, “but what exactly are we doing here? I just don’t want any...um...misunderstandings.”

Addax tried to regain some composure and answer. Between the alcohol and the sight of a well-kissed Jace on Jamil’s lap it didn’t seem likely. He stared a moment longer at the two of them, thinking. He was saved by Jace, wonderful Jace who he loved so much, answering instead.

“We’ve talked before, Jamil, you’re- Well I mean,” Jace waved a hand in the vicinity of Jamil’s face, “And we both like you. I mean if you want this could be a one-time thing, but also it could be a not one-time thing. A many-time thing.”

Addax felt his heart beating hard against his ribs as Jamil’s brow furrowed. Then she grinned wide, “Well I like-like you guys too.”

All three giggled at how silly it sounded, put like that.

“But honestly,” she continued, “I’d like to try with you. We can start with tonight and figure things out from there. I’ve always been good at thinking on my feet.”

“What about thinking on your back,” Jace turned to straddle Jamil, gently pressing her down across the sofa.

“I’m told I’m pretty good at that too,” she pulled Jace down with her and kissed him, Addax saw her hands reach up to the top of Jace’s flight suit which she began unfastening. Not to be left out, he kneeled behind Jace and helped her pull it off, mouthing along Jace’s shoulders and back as the skin there was revealed. Jace let out a whimper, the kind he let out when someone bit down on his lip. Addax wondered if he should be feeling jealous, hearing someone else kissing Jace, discovering all the secrets that made him tick, but instead he just felt happy. His two favourite people were making each other happy. And Addax could appreciate the beautiful image they made, Jace lifting up Jamil’s skirt, yanking off her underwear and trailing his fingers down to rub at her clit. Jamil moaned against his lips. Addax pulled himself up further over Jace’s shoulder to get a better look at her face. She locked eyes with him, and he was stunned by the sight of them, filled with desire and pleasure. Then Addax felt Jace moving in front of him, spreading his legs to straddle one of Jamil's thighs and beginning to rut against her. Addax reached forward to find Jace’s cunt, pushing one finger inside him and circling his clit with the other.

“Oh, damn. Fuck, Addax,” he moaned, then came a second later, gasping and reaching down to kiss Jamil again. His hands simply rested against her thigh, too distracted to focus on pleasing her. Jamil didn’t seem to mind, bringing her own hand down between her legs.

“That was hot as hell,” she told Addax, pulling away from Jace’s lips for a moment and drawing a sad whimper out of him. She quickly returned to kissing him.

“Yeah,” he murmured back, drinking in the sight of her. Entranced by her hand speeding up, her hips rising in rhythm, and her face contorted until she too came. Her head tossed back against the couch, and her hands rose to Jace’s hair, drawing him close to her. Her whole body shuddered and it took a few seconds for her to regain her breath. Addax saw Jace moving the focus of his lips from her mouth to her breasts as he unbuttoned her shirt.

“You up for round two,” she asked Jace, once she regained her breath. 

“Yeah, I have an idea,” Jace grinned and whispered something into Jamil’s ear. Then he pulled himself from Jamil’s arms and knelt on the floor. Jamil sat up with her legs spread wide around Jace’s head. Then he began to lick at her sex. Both were a mess, Jamil with her shirt half unbuttoned, and her skirt hiked up around her waist moaning and tugging at Jace’s hair. Jace, entirely naked and shining with sweat, ate her out desperately, his thighs occasionally shuddering as he sought some kind of friction. Addax felt as though he could watch them forever. Then Jace turned around, gave him a smirk with shining wet lips, and said, “Fuck me.”

Addax had a moment where he worried he might come untouched from just the words and sight before him. He paused to take a deep breath, then he did as he was told. Kneeling behind Jace, he entered him easily, both of them slick with arousal. Then he began to thrust in earnest, and everything began to dissolve into pure sensation. The feeling of Jace clenching around him. The sight of Jamil above him, chasing orgasm until finally, she came. Jace pulling away from her, to reposition Addax until he was hitting that spot that made Jace cry out desperately and scratch at his back, kissing him desperately and messily. And then they both came, and returned to themselves. Sweaty and panting and sated.

“Well that was something,” Jamil finally said.

“Yes,” Addax agreed.

“Shh,” Jace said, “sleep now, talk tomorrow.”


	2. Interlude: the morning after

Jace woke slowly and blessedly without a headache. OriCon sucked in many ways, but never let it be said they didn’t know how promote or improve something that could be sold. Results of this superpower included both the vodka he’d had last night and his public image. The “Hero of OriCon” could be found in millions of shows and action figures produced or licensed out by EarthHome Entertainment and shared nothing but looks in common with Jace. It didn't matter. Jace refused to let himself get unhappy about that, not this morning when he woke up sandwiched between Addax and Jamil. He couldn’t even bring himself to be entirely annoyed at the ache in his neck that was definitely a side effect of sleeping on the couch rather than a bed.

Jace maneuvered his way out from between the two of them and headed to the kitchen. He turned on the coffee machine and debated making breakfast. Pancakes seemed overambitious from what he knew of his cooking skills. He could probably make eggs, but he wasn’t sure how Jamil liked hers. There was always cereal, but that wasn’t really cooking. Whatever, Jace figured he could leave it for them to decide when they woke up. He made his coffee with what was a perfectly reasonable amount of sugar, no matter what Addax might say, and settled down on one of the kitchen chairs. He considered the night before as he sipped at his coffee.

He and Addax had discussed sleeping with Jamil, well as much as they were able to discuss anything between their hectic mission schedules, in whispers while working undercover together. In fact, in the last mission with all three of them, they had decided to invite her up to the hotel room rented under the name Silver—a couple looking to buy some Snowtrak Synergies mechs. Unfortunately something had tipped Snowtrak off to the fact that they were actually investigating the rumours of Rigour tech within the new conglomerate, Petrichor Automedia, and they had been forced to flee off planet, followed by assassins. From then, things had snowballed into the incident on September with barely a moment of peace. Until now.

Now he had a whole morning of peace. They were living on borrowed time, Jace knew and was sure Addax would remind him, but borrowed time was better than no time. Now at least they stood a chance to find some weakness, some method of destroying Rigour. When it returned, the sector would be prepared, the Rapid Evening would make sure of that.

Jace’s coffee was almost finished by the time Addax and Jamil walked into the kitchen. The two stood next to each other with the awkwardness that tended to follow one night stands. Jace wished for a moment that things had gone a little closer to plan, that he and Addax had spent their first night with Jamil following a long and involved discussion of feelings and logistics which occurred while they were sober. Jace couldn’t quite bring himself to regret last night, but he had to admit it hadn’t been ideal.

He was comforted by Addax’s reassuring smile and the gentle kiss he pressed to Jace’s head as he passed on his way to the coffee machine, but it didn’t manage to wipe away the uncomfortable silence in the kitchen.

“I think you mentioned talking this morning?” Jamil finally said, still standing in the doorway. Her tone was light, but it felt deliberately so, forced.

“Yes,” Jace agreed. The talking really should have come before the sex, but with last night. Well, this would have to do.

“Last night, was...unusual circumstances. With Rigour and the alcohol and everything. I mean, what happened was nothing more or less than I've been wanting for well… a while now,” she trailed off.

“I sense a but,” Addax said, wrapping an arm around Jace’s shoulders.

“Don’t think I’m calling last night a mistake. Because it wasn’t,” she smiled, a brittle and honest and hopeful smile, “but it was maybe a bit hasty. We should...date, see if we’re compatible. If we decide we just want to be fuckbuddies that’s fine as well, but it should be an actual decision. I already know and love you as friends, and I could see us becoming more than that. But it’ll take work.”

“That’s- yeah,” Jace said.

“Dating could work,” Addax agreed, “I think all three of us could stand to get to know each other a bit better.”

“Wonderful,” Jamil smiled without any of the earlier traces of sadness. Jace liked this smile, lips with only a smudge of last night’s purple makeup curled up into something joyful and private. “The first thing you should know is that I make great pancakes.”


	3. Chapter 3

The transmission came in through Jamil's comms. She had been entrusted with the duty of tracking Aria and the Righteous Vanguard to due her friendship with the pop star. The message crackled through, hijacked from a call to far across the sector and bounced through satellites until it would be untraceable. 

A brief message from Cassander Timeus Berenice to Aria Joie. A goodbye and reassurance to a friend across the span of a war. Rigour would be dead, the message promised. Cass would be dead too. Then the reports came in of the people under Voice’s control breaking free, and Jamil felt hope as she hadn’t dreamt she could.

Jamil's eyes darted to the screen tracking Jace and Addax. She hasn't been assigned as their liaison this mission, too overwhelmed by her focus on the political side of the war, but she still had her access. She pulled up their vitals and a link through to call them on her screen. She called Jace first. He picked up instantly, "Jamil! What's happened?"

"We. Oh my god. Jace! They've done it. The fucking Chime, Rigour is dead!" 

His face lit up with an optimism she couldn't recall seeing on his in all the time she'd known him. He seemed to glow and Jamil thought she understood why they'd declared Jace a hero, why the whole sector had built statues of Jace. He was beautiful in victory. ?more?

"I have to call Addax. And you, I assume, need to deal with the remainders of Voice's army. Be safe!" 

"Love you too, Jamil!" And she shut off comsa to the sight of his grinning face. Then she shifted to Addax's stream. 

"Status update, soldier!" she barked out. She could see him stiffen up, standing at a attention even from within his mech, before he realized it was her.

“One day, that won’t work, Jamil,” he sighed. Unlike with Jace’s comms, there was no background hum of mechs at war.

“But that day is not today,” she smirked for a second at their long running joke, “But honestly, Addax, how are things there?”

“Surprisingly… alright. We were under fire from our own side, the people Voice took over, but they seem to be returning to their senses. I can’t- Oh. You know what happened. That’s why you’re calling.”

“It was the Chime. They did something to Voice. And now Cass is apparently going into the sun. Taking Rigour with them, to make sure it stays down this time,” she felt the enormity of it hit her for a moment. This was a celebration, of course, the sector would go on unconsumed by Rigour. She would live, and against all odds so should Jace and Addax. And yet. So many had sacrificed themselves for this victory. People with their own families, their own dreams. So many lives. She wondered if perhaps they hadn’t merely followed Grace’s plan as Addax had laid out months that felt like centuries ago-simply bury Rigour in body count. She looked at Addax’s face, which had become so familiar and so dear to her. His eyes reflected back to her all her worries, but also his undying support, in that quiet, gentle way Addax had.

“Imagine that,” he mused, “an Apokine saving the sector. Fifteen years ago I wouldn’t have believed it possible.”

“Things change,” Jamil found herself murmuring back. And she wondered at the enormity of change that the sector faced, “Get here as soon as you can, Addax. I’ll tell Jace as well. We’ve won. We deserve a chance to celebrate.”

Then Jamil return to her screens. They may have won, but of course battles were never that simple. There remained clones, too brainwashed to break free from Rigour, and cultists who’d decided to take upon themselves Rigour’s cause. A team would need to be sent to the wreckage on September to ensure that Rigour’s remains were well and truly gone. She began coordinating with the rest of the Rapid Evening, throwing herself into the work with the renewed promise that it was almost the end.

She emerged from some kind of fugue state several hours later, at the sound of an incoming call from Jace. She quickly opened the line, and there he stood on her screen. More tired than he’d been, but now surrounded by the quiet of a battle won.

“We’ve dealt with the siltation here. I mean, there’s still some clean up. But there's always clean up, and what’s the point in being the saviour of the Golden Branch if i don’t use it to get out of cleaning duty sometimes,” he said. She was glad they were on the same page.

“Get to Kesh, Jace. You know where my office is. I’ve told Addax the same,” Jamil wished she could reach through the screen and touch Jace. Hug him tightly, walk beside to steady his shaking frame, kiss him hard against the soft smile he always wore at the mention of Addax.

"I'll beat him to you," and Jace signed off, leaving Jamil to her thoughts once more. She finished dealing with the operatives she was handling, they too had finally won in the shifting tide of Rigour’s death. Then she left the rest in the capable hands of the Evening. They would manage without her for one night. She shut down all her computers, leaving just her emergency communicator on. Everything else would wait. Then she looked around her office, or was it more an apartment at this point, after all she hadn't left it in weeks. She'd set up a bedroom and even a small kitchen in the suite the Rapid Evening provided her with on Kesh. She considered attempting to cook something, but decided it was best not to risk that. She called a local restaurant that they frequented, in fact it was the same one that they had gone to on their first date after the September Incident, their first victory against Rigour. Jamil had close friendship with the hostess, a robot she was convinced had developed sentience, and managed to arrange takeout to be delivered to her office. Then she waited. 

It was Jace who arrived first. She saw his Panther land and dock through her window and felt a jittery anticipation rise she within her. She had missed him. These last few weeks the battle had drawn all l three of them across the sector, a contrast to the past few years where they had been sent almost everywhere as a team. Investigating companies, preparing to fight Rigour, even babysitting Mako and his clones had been done together. Then a knock at her door and there stood Jace Rethal, hair falling flat from where it had been tucked into his helmet, eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep, sweaty and trembling. He was the most beautiful thing she had seen all day. She wrapped her arms around him, tucked her head against his neck and breathed deeply. She felt his chest rising and falling against her own and comforted herself with the steady beat of his heart. 

"Hi," he whispered and she felt his breath tickle at the back of her neck. 

"Hi," she responded. Then she let her arms fall and took a step back, "Come sit."

She pulled him over to the kitchen table where they sat facing each other, holding hands as though if they let go the other might vanish. 

“We’ve won, Jace. We’va actually won,” and Jamil began to cry, racking sobs that may have been relief or may have just been sorrow. She couldn’t tell anymore. Jace rose and circled the table, coming to wrap his arms around her. Jamil shook against him, unable to stop the flood of tears. She had been fine throughout the war, keeping too busy with work to internalize all the fear and horror, but now there was time. Their whole lives. To think and worry and regret. But also to learn and love and enjoy. Jamil felt a second set of arms wrap around the both of them and looked up to Addax. He too had come straight from his mech, sweaty and exhausted and beautiful despite it. Or perhaps because of it. Addax thrived in combat. Arguably one of the best benefits or worst crimes of Diasporan candidates being chosen so young was the way they grew up at ease with their authority and vicious in war. That was of course assuming they grew up at all. Addax, Jamil sometimes forgot, had been fighting since he was fifteen years old. First against OriCon, then with them against Apostolos in the Golden War, and for the past few years with the Rapid Evening against Rigour. A whole life of war. She wondered what he would do with peace. But now was not the time for that. Now was the time for reunions. There would be plenty of time for worrying later.

“You’re home,” she smiled at Addax, “both my boys home at last.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I only really edited this once so sorry for any mistakes but it's been sitting my computer for months and I need to post it.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on twitter @abbyisshabby or tumblr @abby-not-too-shabby


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